By 2009, Mark Harrington was no longer living the dream. The maximum overtime he worked during the '90s SUV boom had been replaced by an alternating schedule of two weeks on and two off as Chrysler teetered on the brink. The workforce at Jefferson North had been cut in half because of slack demand. Gone were the days when Harrington bunked in his parents' basement, enjoying the riches of $28-an-hour auto work. He now had a mortgage, a wife, two kids and another on the way. "We were living one day at a time," he said.

Then Chrysler went bankrupt and Jefferson North went dark. Beginning May 4, 2009, Harrington was on indefinite layoff for the first time. So he turned to the only person he felt he could trust, the one responsible for him going to work at Jefferson North in 1994: his father.